On 2017-08-17 19:06, Tiki-boss wrote:Sad thing is that outside of a tiki bar many people may actually send back a properly made Mai Tai simply because it's not what they expecting.

I believe it. My personal view is that bartenders would really benefit from trying to SELL the customer on the story that goes with the drink, thereby also EDUCATING their customers. Otherwise what is the bartender doing? Just slinging booze. Bartenders could (should) give their customers more value by teaching them to be better drinkers, and telling them awesome backstories. Oh, they're too busy 100% of the time to actually care about the customer? Then the bar will achieve very little other than slinging booze.

Would you rather drink "just a cocktail," or a cocktail with some passion and a great story coupled with it? I'm not saying the bartender should tell a 10-minute story with each drink, but at least say SOMETHING when you serve it, like "this is a famous one with a great backstory" and then let the customer become really curious and ask a question.
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On 2017-08-17 19:06, Tiki-boss wrote:Sad thing is that outside of a tiki bar many people may actually send back a properly made Mai Tai simply because it's not what they expecting.

I believe it. My personal view is that bartenders would really benefit from trying to SELL the customer on the story that goes with the drink, thereby also EDUCATING their customers. Otherwise what is the bartender doing? Just slinging booze. Bartenders could (should) give their customers more value by teaching them to be better drinkers, and telling them awesome backstories. Oh, they're too busy 100% of the time to actually care about the customer? Then the bar will achieve very little other than slinging booze.

Would you rather drink "just a cocktail," or a cocktail with some passion and a great story coupled with it? I'm not saying the bartender should tell a 10-minute story with each drink, but at least say SOMETHING when you serve it, like "this is a famous one with a great backstory" and then let the customer become really curious and ask a question.

I think most bartenders don't know the history and backstory, or don't care to learn and enlighten. It's just a job for them. I've never been to bartending school so can't say for certain, but presumably they only teach technique and how to make the most commonly requested cocktails, which aren't that complex. Not that a Mai Tai is that difficult to master. But more than likely your average bar doesn't stock the ingredients needed to make a proper Mai Tai, and besides us whiners who know what it could and should be, the common consumer is unlikely to complain about the slop they're drinking cuz they don't know any better.

BG Reynolds also had a couple of good videos on the correct way to make a Mai Tai and a 1950 Zombie, and the volume of people spouting lunacies they had learned at bartending school was jarring.
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That is cruel, and an interesting mix of ingredients. Once again we see the Mai Tai has become a free-for-all drink title used by those who don't know anything about the real drink and that area of cocktail history.

Campari? The guy is just attempting to show off by using something a little unusual.

On 2017-08-25 13:26, AceExplorer wrote:That is cruel, and an interesting mix of ingredients. Once again we see the Mai Tai has become a free-for-all drink title used by those who don't know anything about the real drink and that area of cocktail history.

Campari? The guy is just attempting to show off by using something a little unusual.

On 2017-08-15 14:46, TikiHardBop wrote:Sorry, but the "kerosene" Mai Tai from the Bahi Hut in Sarasota has got to be the winner by far. It is easily the worst drink of any kind that I have been served by a commercial establishment.

When I saw the thread name... I just assumed it would be about the Bahi Hut's Mai Tai. A lot of good take-aways in this discussion. Whenever, I introduce new people to the BH I end up explaining the "Mai Tai", theres vs real ones and real ones vs what we often encounter.

In all my travels.. all my Mai Tais, the Bahi Hut Mai Tai is... unique, and I never have to have one again. ever.

Exceeding the two drink minimum will lead to VERY BAD THINGS.

That said, I will always fight to keep it on the menu. It is legendary and so many of us locals have endured that right of passage that it is tradition.
When you list the criteria for calling yourself a "Sarasotan" this is arguably at the top.

"It is a curious fact, and one to which no-one knows quite how much importance to attach, that something like 85 percent of all known worlds in the Galaxy, be they primitive or highly advanced, have invented a drink called jynnan tonyx, or gee-N'N-T'N-ix, or jinond-o-nicks, or any one of a thousand variations on this phonetic theme.
The drinks themselves are not the same, and vary between the Sivolvian ‘chinanto/mnigs’ which is ordinary water served just above room temperature, and the Gagrakackan 'tzjin-anthony-ks’ which kills cows at a hundred paces; and in fact the only one common factor between all of them, beyond the fact that their names sound the same, is that they were all invented and named before the worlds concerned made contact with any other worlds."

The thing I find most odd about this is, why would Olive Garden feel the need to make an Italian-themed Mai Tai? Why not just create generic cocktails like Pisa Punch or Sicily Sour? Considering Etna and Vesuvius, they could have even had their own volcano bowls. No imagination, these days....

On 2017-12-19 12:43, arriano wrote:The thing I find most odd about this is, why would Olive Garden feel the need to make an Italian-themed Mai Tai? Why not just create generic cocktails like Pisa Punch or Sicily Sour? Considering Etna and Vesuvius, they could have even had their own volcano bowls. No imagination, these days....

Or they could dip into Joe Scialom's repertoire of rome-themed cocktails, but then again that would mean they'd actually have to serve a drink stiff enough to cop a buzz on.

On 2017-12-19 12:43, arriano wrote:The thing I find most odd about this is, why would Olive Garden feel the need to make an Italian-themed Mai Tai? Why not just create generic cocktails like Pisa Punch or Sicily Sour? Considering Etna and Vesuvius, they could have even had their own volcano bowls. No imagination, these days....

Exactly. This is a prime example of the lack of a competent beverage director. Who would go to an Italian joint to even order a legit mai tai anyway?
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